Lateral Hypothalamic Circuits for Feeding and Reinforcement

描述(申请人提供)：虽然寻找和摄入卡路里物质对生存至关重要，但控制适应性食物寻找和消费的特定大脑回路可能会变得失调，从而促进各种不适应行为，如上瘾和暴饮暴食。因此，旨在进一步了解控制食物消耗和强化的特定神经回路组件的实验，对于确定未来饮食失调治疗方法的重要新靶点至关重要。在这里，我们建议研究调节自然奖赏寻求和消费的下丘脑外侧区的精确神经回路。我们计划绘制基因定义的下丘脑外侧区神经元群体与传入和传出结构之间的精确电路连接和功能图，并表征这些回路中在奖励寻求和消费行为中的神经元活动模式。我们还将测试精密电路元件对这些工艺的必要性和充分性。总的来说，这些实验将阐明连接下丘脑和其他大脑结构的精确神经回路，以协调奖励过程。这些实验可能会发现许多对奖励寻求和消费至关重要的新回路，以期成为未来治疗神经精神疾病(如成瘾和抑郁，以及饮食失调和肥胖)的靶子。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): While seeking out and consuming caloric substances is essential for survival, specific brain circuits that control adaptive food seeking as well as consumption, likely become dysregulated to promote a variety of maladaptive behaviors such as addiction and binge eating. Thus, experiments designed to further understand the specific neural circuit components that control food consumption and reinforcement are of critical importance for identifying important novel targets for the development of future treatments for eating disorders. Here we propose to study the precise neural circuits of the lateral hypothalamus that regulate natural reward seeking and consumption. We plan to map the precise circuit connectivity and function between genetically defined neuronal populations of the lateral hypothalamus and afferent and efferent structures, as well to characterize the neuronal activity patterns within these circuits during reward seeking and consumption behaviors. We will also test of the necessity and sufficiency of precise circuit elements to these processes. Collectively, these experiments will elucidate the precise neural circuits that interface the laterl hypothalamus with other brain structure to orchestrate reward processing. These experiments will likely uncover many novel circuits critical for reward seeking and consumption to target for future therapeutic interventions for neuropsychiatric disorders such as addiction and depression, as well eating disorders and obesity.